Any one else realised this Ultimate Truth?
The first inklings of this realisation occured when I began meditating around the age of 14, and then a full enlightenment experience at 24. Decades later now, I wonder if others have realised this Truth.
I've gone through the rabbit hole of finding the perfect amount of time to meditate for and I think as much as I want an answer to this question, I don't think there is one really.
So, I was wondering how do you approach meditating from a time aspect?
Right now for me I just meditate once or twice a day with no timer and just a stopwatch and just simply meditate, this way I dont really have an expectation to when I want to stop I just go with the flow and meditate in the present till I dont feel like it anymore. Some days are shorter than others some days are longer but I think the main point is that im consistent and I get what I need from the practice.
Hi there, I have a question that I hope somebody have the answer for it.
I've been meditating for 2 years (since 2018 till 2020) for 10 mins to 20 mins. Everytime I meditating i felt this blissful feeling the moment I sat on the floor and closed my eyes. The feeling of grateful, i feel good vibration, peace, my body was relax and automatically moved slowly. But then covid hit and life happens, many things changed from my routine, got married, resigned from abusive job and many things, so I took a break for 4 years and started again in late 2025 (still until now) and I feel different, just like void, I feel nothing. Maybe I was wrong but everytime i sit on the floor try to meditate I'm searching for that feeling, but couldn't reach it until now. However, I feel tingling on my hands , and start to feel like my body is so hot even my room has ac sometime I'm sweating while meditate. Idk how to go back to that blissful state but I do miss the feeling.
Does Anybody know why I couldn't reach that feeling anymore or any advice what to do.
There is never a need to discard thought altogether, yet when your force of kindness, compassion and understanding are working for you, ahead of the dualistic nature of your thoughts, conscious direction and conscious motivation become second nature and thought is simply there as a utility when you need it. As a meditator, you don't have to be a strong influencer. Just being a conscious presence is needed.
Hi everyone,
I was meditating and practicing mindfulness regularly for about 2 years (and before that on and off). Alongside that, I was participating in plum village meeting and overall very into buddhism.
Unfortunately, I got a bit lost because I started getting really intense about it.
- I tried at home retreats, but felt lost and depressed and anxious after just a couple hours
- I tried reading more deeply about buddhism and just felt icky about it because some of the texts I really don't agree with
- I tried meditating for longer but felt that same void and whatnot
The thing is, I still recognize that meditation, of all kinds, has helped me quite a lot, and I recognize that maybe I went too deep too quickly.
So, I wanna get back into meditation and even plum village meetings, but I'd like to know if any of you have any advice. I'm thinking about starting really small, like 5-15 minutes a day, maybe even just 5. And maybe focusing on metta instead of open awareness.
I'd also like to know how you integrate meditation in your overall spiritual practices. Are you mostly buddhist? pagan? christian? something else? Have you switched from buddhism to something that is a better fit? Do you find it more helpful to stay away from any sort of organized religion?
The break I took from meditation was months-long so I wanna approach it with respect and care. Any help is appreciated!
Much love!
💜
Has anyone experienced a feeling of “floating” or becoming extremely light during deep meditation?
I don’t mean physically levitating, but more like the sensation that the body is becoming weightless or that my awareness is slightly detached from the physical sensation of sitting. It usually happens when my thoughts become very quiet and my body is completely relaxed, sometimes to the point where it feels almost like I’m about to fall asleep even though I’m still conscious.
I’m curious what this experience is called or what might be happening physiologically/psychologically. Is this a normal part of deep relaxation or meditation, or is it something I should be mindful of?
They tell me the rep is losing and returning attention. Attention drifts, you notice, you return. That's the unit. That's what counts.
So what is the staying for?
If returning is the rep, then returning is the point. More returns, more reps. A mind that stayed on the breath would earn nothing.
I return well. I do not stay well. Half a breath, sometimes less, before I am gone. Three full breaths in a row is a rare animal. I see it maybe once a sitting, if that.
Some days it isn't even a departure. It's a flicker: breath-thought-breath-thought. So fast it stops feeling like taking turns. It feels like both at once. The exhale and the other thing, side by side, sharing the same second.
It's disorienting and makes me angry at myself, which is its own kind of noise.
So how do you train the staying. Not the noticing. Not the return. The staying itself. Is it a separate muscle, or does it just show up, uninvited, after enough reps of return.
Have you done death meditation? To meditate on death daily so that you eliminate all unnecessary stuff
What about pain meditation? To meditate on life failures of your past daily to let it sting you to lit a fire in you to overcome that shortcoming.
This is complete opposite the positive visualization type meditations.
The answer or solution to your present lies in the past. So daily meditation on your life past will uncover solutions to problems you may be facing in present.
Basically watching your movie roll.
Learning from others is ok. But learning from your own mistakes is the best learning there is. Suitable to you only.
So put on stoic music. Sit in a dark room. Turn your life reel on. Watch and rewatch every night until you master yourself.
Bonus benefits: (a) you will develop self compassion. (B) You will untangle your mind from others and be focused on your life track. (C) You'll stop judging or envying others or their lifestyles or gifts and be focused on yours. (D) You will become grounded in your roots by understanding yourself.
This is just theory. I am starting this just now to get unstuck and achieve what I am capable of achieving.
I recently started doing the 10-day Goenka course and after day 2 I could not take it anymore so I left in the middle of it. Now I can’t help it not thinking that I never be disciplined enough to be happy. I know Intellectually that is not true but this feeling stayed with me. is this common? anyone else have this experience? what can I do?
I had a lot of resistance in some way I didn't know what I'm getting myself into and when the chanting started and when they played Goenka(who has very hypnotizing voice) saying "surrender... surrender yourself..." I just didn't want to move foreward with this and thought maybe there is no coming back from it. I really need an advice.
I started meditating recently and I don't have a great knowledge about meditation.
I started doing the breath meditation because it is what I know, and I do this laid in my bad for 10 to 15 min.
But when I am meditating I don't have the thoughts coming and going, my mind is usually calm.
Can it be because I have a quiet mind or is it some process of meditation?
English is not my first language.
I started meditating two years ago, but it’s been an inconsistent, on-and-off journey. About a week ago, I decided to give it another real shot and stay consistent. Looking back, I realized what made me quit so easily before: I could never stop ruminating or overthinking my problems. I never truly surrendered to the experience or reached that deep state where you finish the session feeling like a completely different person. I know people say this is just part of the beginner phase, but does it really get better over time? How did you overcome this?
If you are having trouble focussing on experience as it is, because there seems to be something in the way, like the self or your own concept or idea of what you are focussing on seems to be in the way of your attention to something (especially the attention to the experience of something as it is occurring in the moment):
You make an exact mental copy of what you are focussing on / being mindful of.
You make this exact copy have the exact same details as what you are focussing on, same shape, same size, same colours/sensations/sound, same location in the field of experience, changing in the same way, arising when it arises, changing when it changes, passing when it passes, everything the same.
This exact copy then becomes indistinguishable from the actual experience, it dissolves into it, and you are left with direct experience, with nothing in the way, and with a focussed attention on the target experience.
Once you get used to how it is done, you can do it in a more flowing way with whatever experience takes the attention at the time and moving from one sense object/experience to another freely in this way. It is a way of accessing and staying on direct experience as it simply is. I guess what it is doing is making the concept of something exactly match the actual experience of it, then the concept turns transparent/dissolves and is just bare attention at that point, pure receptivity.
I came across this through my own experimentation, though I would imagine it must have been discovered before and must be part of some system already as there is not much that is truly new in meditation and mindfulness given that they are thousands of years old with many different ways of doing things, so has anyone heard of anything similar and if so, which practice, tradition and or teacher?
i've been meditating daily for the last 7 years, without skipping a single day, and i've experienced so many phases. sooo many. in fact, a little while ago i had one of the most extraordinary experiences since i started meditating... right after going through a very 'flat' period...
my conclusion: the most important thing is not the experiences in meditation themselves, not even how you feel on any particular day... the most important thing is the compound effect of doing it over and over again. if i look back at the person i am today and the one from day one, total transformation (and i know it will keep going, that's why i keep meditating). in fact it's literally the transformation of your cells through meditation
the first 3 years of meditation i was almost a monk, i followed a pretty strict diet, did 15 silent retreats where i meditated for hours, had 2 years of celibacy (natural, not forced) and i lived in a constant meditative state....
then i grew up and it was time to take responsibility for, my 'adult life'. i fell in love, went traveling, started enjoying the pleasures of food and coffee more, started building businesses and wanting to make money... but even so, i kept meditating. my experiences changed, they became more earthly, now my day to day was more 'superficial' (i put it in quotes because it's all part of the same thing)... and i accepted that, because if i looked at the whole movie, beyond the stress, the desires and everything... in my heart the feeling of peace and presence kept growing.
so from my point of view, keep meditating, no matter what happens. If you feel stuck, you can add more breathing techniques and yoga before meditating; it helps you reach a deeper practice.
lastly, i'll share one experience, which again, is just an experience, a gift. i don't cling to it and i keep meditating for the sake of meditating and for the long term, not to chase experiences like this one.
one friday night i was home alone, finishing up work, and i fell into a loop of watching instagram videos about conspiracy theories. a damn black hole. about the war, mass rituals, the music industry, among other things... they took my mind to a place of awe and confusion. how the hell can all of this be real? we live in a simulation!!
right after that i went to meditate, with that feeling. i was doing my breathing techniques and started observing thoughts like, what is all this? where are we? how can so many things exist, so much diversity?
the moment my meditation started, i began to observe other thoughts chained to the previous ones, 'who is the one thinking this?' 'where do these thoughts come from?' right after that i stopped feeling my body and started feeling empty space, absolutely nothing... and another thought, 'who am i?'
i started crying and laughing at the same time, with a huge smile. i had the feeling that i was remembering something, and i felt 'i am the creator of this world, everything that exists is part of the same thing'
i was in that space for about 30 minutes, and when i finished, i looked at my hands and my body like 'here i am again, i chose to be here and play this game'
reading through this community inspired me to put this into words for the first time
cheers!
Context: Hello, I practice mindfulness of breath ~45min every morning, along with daily walking meditation. My practice has recently become less effortful, and I can reach a deep focus. Whenever I meditate, I feel energy and pleasant sensations rising together, usually within first five breaths -- I've only recently been able to tell the two apart, seeing one arise separately from the other. These same sensations appear outside of meditation, when my concentration/awareness are strong.
Situation: Last Sunday, I had a rare day free of obligations, so after seated meditation I went for a long walk. My concentration was unusually strong, to the point that when I stopped at red lights and exclusively attended my breath, I immediately fell into a deep concentrated state. The practice was so effortless and rewarding that I continued it, and after walking 2hrs, I took a train, and my mind was so calm that I immediately resumed seated meditation for the duration of my trip, after which I resumed walking meditation, etc. I spent over 5hrs in near-continuous meditation, a first by a long shot - and I felt a tremendous amount of energy (almost like I was overcaffeinated, but pleasantly), far fewer discursive thoughts, great joy.
The next day (yesterday), I woke up and did my seated meditation. While I reached a deep state, I felt little energy arising and almost no pleasure. It was strange. I did some walking meditation later in the day, and felt more energy and limited joy, but just a hint, despite strong mindfulness. This morning, I woke up and feeling calm and ready, I did seated meditation. I felt some pleasure, perhaps a little more than yesterday, but it was very limited, although the energy was stronger and I felt it start to build. My concentration was strong, and I was able to reach a state where my breath fell off, and my heart beat wasn't accessible for some reason, so I searched for an object for my attention. Usually this is blankets of pleasant feelings settling in my body, but today only the tiniest wisps of pleasant came and went, and I maintained mindfulness without a reliable object until my breath slowly returned. I did mindful walking afterwards, and felt strong energy building, but almost no pleasure.
Question: Has anyone experienced this near absence of pleasure before? What do you do with this? I don't believe I should judge the experience, yet I'll be transparent and say I'm not enjoying it. I felt unsettled after seated meditation, as if it were borrowing a body. (I don't want to overstate this as a non-dual insight, just an unpleasant feeling.) I'm considering taking a couple days off, or just practicing walking meditation.
I'm in the process of finding a teacher, have reached and and am awaiting responses. Thanks!
It’s been two years since I took 8 months off for meditation, and honestly, that was probably the best time of my life.
After college, I always thought I could work anytime in life, but once you start working, taking months off just for yourself doesn’t feel that easy anymore.
I read, cooked for the people I loved, spent time with my pets, sat by the river for hours, and sometimes just meditated for 4–5 hours. There was no rush to be anywhere or achieve anything.
I really loved that life. I think a part of me still misses it.
I'm on a grateful journey lately and I feel like my heart is asking to feel and release so I'm looking for some good heart-led gratitude meditations. I use insightT and YouTube
So I’ve been meditating almost daily for about 3 months now. I’ve noticed that throughout the day, I’m getting a lot of childhood memories come back. It will be just a quick flashback that only lasts a few seconds. It’s that nostalgic feeling, like the sweet smell of apple pie on a summer’s day. They are moments I completely forgot existed, memories from the back of my mind.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it the meditation doing this?
So manifesting coaches always say visualizing is a good method, and i recently read a substack about a person's experience talking to a monk. Apparently the monk said for confused people or for ones with a blank canvas, rather than visualizing, meditating and letting the vision flow is the real deal. This way you should be able to "catch glimpses" of your future.
I couldn't get to read further but if anyone else has experienced this or knows about it, id love to hear about it
Can anyone help me. I made a bad business decision and wasted a year of time. Now a long term employee is leaving for another competitor. I clearly made mistakes and I acknowledge it. But I can't stop reliving it and wishing I did something different and beating myself up for it. I feel like a psychosis is forming. I'm on no drugs. Just daily caffeine. I can't break out of this!!! It's chest crushing and debilitating for weeks now. Loved ones can only help so much. I've bounced it off them but I keep going back to where I screwed up. It's not a self harm situation but my brain is causing me major issues to the point where it's hurting me.
Hello,
I’ve been trying to meditate lately. Whenever I try to meditate, I somehow end up in this strange sleepy-but-aware state after 15–20 minutes. I think, ‘Okay, I’m sleepy… maybe I should just go to bed.’ 😂
Then comes the funny part: once I actually go to bed, I can’t sleep!
Is this a normal meditation experience, or am I just very good at making myself sleepy at the wrong time? 😄